That’s right, a smaller iPad around the same size as the 7-inch tablets that other companies are making.

What gives?

Well, as CEO Tim Cook said on the call, the point is that the screen is not exactly 7 inches long diagonally. Instead, the longer length and resolution makes the iPad Mini a superior tablet.

Here are Cook’s comments, from the earnings call (emphasis added by us):

On your question about iPad Mini, the comments you’re referencing are comments Steve had made before about 7-inch tablets. Let me be clear, we would not make a 7-inch tablet, we don’t think they’re good products. One of the reasons is size. The difference on just the real estate size is almost 30%. When you look at the usable area, it’s much greater than that, it’s 50-67%. The iPad Mini has the same number of pixels as iPad 2 does, so you have access to all 275,000 apps that are in our App Store that have been custom designed to take advantage of the full canvas. iPad Mini is a fantastic product, it’s not a compromised product like the 7-inch tablets.

It seemed more likely that Apple decided to build a smaller tablet because a market materialized thanks to companies like Google and Amazon building smaller, 7-inch tablets.

Cook, on the other hand, seems to suggest that was always the plan — people just got caught up on a technicality.

Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president for world-wide marketing, put it more simply on the earnings call, when asked about the shift in positions: “This isn’t seven inches. It is eight inches.”